My latest commentary over at the National Journal security blog tackles Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent suggestion that we formally end the U.S. “combat mission” in Afghanistan in 2013, a year before the deadline to (more or less) withdraw our forces:

My brief comment draws on a much more in-depth story I wrote for National Journal based on interviews with U.S. advisors about what it really takes to train the Afghans to “take the lead” themselves, available here.